The Joy of Movement: How Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage

by Kelly McGonigal

all movement—releases benefici...

Endurance activities like walking, hiking, jogging, running, cycling, and swimming, as well as high-intensity exercise such as interval training, are especially likely to produce a myokinome that supports mental health.

other people can hold the courage and joy for you until you can find your own.

Movement offers us pleasure, identity, belonging, and hope.

physical activity stands out in its ability to fulfill so many human needs,

“Rejecting exercise means rejecting significant experiences of being human.”

Physical activity helps us tap into instincts that have allowed humans to survive for millennia:

the mechanism by which movement seems to accomplish all of this is joy.

When movement brings out the best in us, it does so by making us happy.